Baby, You're a Firework

I'm not a Katy Perry fan, but I couldn't resist the title. I'm sorry to everyone that is now humming that song. It's been stuck in my head for 2 days now. You'll understand why I chose that title when you check out my latest project.

 As I mentioned about a zillion times, I'm on a spending freeze. I recovered a Twisted Tea box to house my etsy shop materials, but I've seen a lot of people in blogland have been covering diaper boxes. They're much bigger and they are very sturdy. My very generous friend donated two diaper boxes to my cause. Thanks!!

I started by cutting the flaps off of the top of the box and reinforcing the corners with some duct tape. I also covered the whole box in brown craft paper to keep the graphics from showing through my fabric. Using the same method I did the first time, I used this off-white canvas like material to cover the box. It was getting late and buggy, so in my haste to get it done quickly, I rushed. Since this box was so much bigger than the other, I was left with so much fabric at the corners. I ended up cutting all of that excess fabric and folding just a few inches over each side. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I really wasn't sure how it was going to go and like I mentioned, I was rushing. I finally got it covered though and the next day decided to stencil it.

Originally I was planning on using a geometric pattern off of the Martha Stewart stencil pack that I got at Micheal's a few months back (you may remember that I used one of the stencils on this photo matte). I changed my mind when I realized that it would be kind of tedious for a "fun & easy" project. Instead, I went with these two other "firework" looking stencils from the same kit. I set up all of my materials outside because it was gorgeous out.

Of course, I was sitting in the shade and Simon was asleep on the deck next to me. Notice that I still have the spray adhesive out. That stuff makes this project so much easier! I sprayed the back of the stencil with a light mist of adhesive and then it just stuck in place on the box.

Rather than buying a stencil pouncer (I think that's what those fancy stencil brushes are called) I just used the end of a two inch foam roller. I dipped the end in my paint and blotted the excess paint off and then sort of bounced the end of the roller over my stencil. Maybe this picture will get my point across:

    I used this purplish-gray that I bought when I painted the stripes on my tv wall. It was looking a little bland with only one color, so I found some white and used that with the other stencil. Confession time - it was still looking kind of boring, so I broke the spending freeze to get a sample of bright pink for $2.97 at Lowe's. Now we can refer to it as a spending slushy? Regardless, I'm glad I bought the pink paint because it really livened it up.

I even painted a thin stripe around the top of the box, although that started because I accidentally smudged some pink paint up there. Ooops. I must say, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I also used some duct tape on the inside to keep the fabric nice and snug.

This storage box is actually going to be used at school. Not every project I complete is for my house! In fact, I have a few school related projects to show you later this week. How's that for a tease? Here it is living very happily on one of my bookcases at school.

The close-up picture is absolutely on purpose because the rest of the room still needs to be put back together! I've been going in for a few hours at a time and things are really coming together. By the way, the white paint is really hard to see in the pictures, but you can kind of see it to the left of the purple in the center. See it?

What are you other teachers doing to prep your rooms? Or am I the only one that's been busy getting ready so soon? Who else has re purposed old diaper boxes? They are the perfect size to hold file folders. Just saying!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

PS - This is my 50th post! Have you checked out any of my past projects? Take a look :)

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